I recently started training with a friend of mine, and on the days that we do push force exercises he keeps telling that he doesn't feel satisfied from the workout. Now this was very strange to me because I saw him struggle to get those 5 reps on the dumbbell chest press and on the overhead press. One time time during one of our workouts, I decided to do some chest presses and shoulder presses using the machines. During that workout I noticed that my friend's right hand is way stronger than his left. I had him press 100 lbs on machine chest press (pin loading) and after 3 reps he simply could not go on. He told me the reason he stopped was only because of his left hand with his right hand he could have gone for a few more. Not believing him I asked him to try to do a couple of presses using only his right hand. Sure enough he was able to do 7 reps with 100lbs with his right hand only.

This was when I understood why he wasn't feeling satisfied with the workouts. We were working well below the weight required to give his right hand a struggle. With all that being said, I wonder: what I can tell him to do so that he will start feeling satisfied from his push workouts like he does from pull and leg days?

2 Answers
2

You should ask him to continue pushing the weight he pushes for his right hand. Since you said you will be training with him, you can help support his left hand. As time passes, you will see his left hand catching up with his right. Never give out when his left hand feels hurt as his left hand will have to use a lot more force than his right to push it up.

At the beginning my left hand is a lot weaker and smaller than my right. With a few of my friends pushing and supporting me, my left hand has started to catch up with my right. Pushing the same weight as my right is still a struggle for my left. I am able to push it without support now.

Yes, my gym instructor also suggested the same thing. I'm also suffering from this problem. He advised me to do equal number of reps with both the hands, even if the weight used is less. This way you will be strengthening your left hand muscles.

At first, I faced some pain in my left hand. But slowly and steadily and doing the weight training as advised, I regained the strength back and am now able to do it properly and without any fatigue either.